Photo: Leslie Smith
Chicago Fire 0-1 Vancouver Whitecaps
CHICAGO, IL—The Fire came into Leagues Cup winning five of their last six. However, after their League Cup campaign, they have now lost three straight after falling to Vancouver Whitecaps, 1-0, at Soldier Field.
The Fire remain two points clear in the ninth and final playoff position in the Eastern Conference, but four teams are now within three points of them with results elsewhere. The Whitecaps are in fifth in the Western Conference closer to second place LAFC (three points) than tenth place Austin FC (five points).
The Fire started the match going with three center backs and it did not take long for Vancouver to try to exploit the setup with their wings. Though the Fire did get the first shot on target in the tenth minute as Kei Kamara was denied by Yohei Takaoka. However, the game’s only goal would come in the 19th minute.
Ryan Gauld sent a cross into the center of the box where Brian White would bundle it over the line past Chris Brady.
The idea in the first half was to have numbers both in cover against the two forwards Gauld and White, and build from the back quicker. However, the rhythm was lacking.
“I just don’t think we were in any rhythm,” said Fire head coach Frank Klopas. “I felt that we never got in a rhythm. We worked on depending how they were pressing us and realizing where the pressure was coming from and then obviously trying to exploit the space that they were leaving. We weren’t sharp with the ball. We got in some good spots, maybe three times, we were able to break the two and then the line of five that they had, and you know, we were going against their backline and then again, sometimes, there are moments where you can finish chances but I think we never got in a rhythm.”
The Fire switched to a back four to start the second half and things improved, but the closest they got was in the 53rd minute when Ousmane Doumbia’s shot took a deflection of White and off the crossbar.
The Fire now need to regroup for Saturday’s match at DC United (6:30pm, Apple TV) which now becomes a playoff six-pointer and questions are now asked about Xherdan Shaqiri who asked to come out of the match at the 78th minute while Kei Kamara, 38, played all 90 minutes.
“So, I didn’t know if he was feeling something,” said Klopas. “We’ll have to evaluate because he made that run right before he came out, he was signaling to the side. So, I don’t know if he was getting tired, that something was going on with his body but mainly, that’s why he came out. We were going to take another player out and bring [Georgios] Koutsias in. But then right before that, you know, we saw him signaling to the sideline that he needed to come out.”
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SCORING SUMMARY:
VAN-Brian White (Gauld, Lareya) 19
BOOKING SUMMARY:
VAN-Javain Brown (caution, reckless tackle) 58
CHICAGO FIRE (3-4-2-1): #34-Chris Brady; #4-Carlos Teran, #22-Mauricio Pineda (#2-Arnaud Souquet 46), #5-Rafael Czichos; #7-Maren Haile-Selassie (#20-Jairo Torres 65), #26-Ousmane Doumbia (#21-Fabian Herbers 65), #31-Federico Navarro, #6-Miguel Navarro; #17-Brian Gutierrez, #10-Xherdan Shaqiri (#19-Georgios Koutsias 78); #23-Kei Kamara
Subs not used: #18-Spencer Richey, #19-Georgios Koutsias, #3-Alonso Aceves, #11-Kacper Przybylko, #24-Jonathan Dean, #16-Wyatt Omsberg
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC (3-1-4-2): #18-Yohei Takaoka; #6-Tristan Blackmon, #4-Ranko Veselinovic, #23-Javain Brown; #45-Pedro Vite; #27-Ryan Raposo (#26-Jean Claude Ngando 78), #22-Ali Ahmed (#8-Alessandro Schopf 60), #16-Sebastian Berhalter, #7-Richie Lareya (#3-Sam Adekugbe 68); #24-Brian White (#9-Sergio Cordova 78), #25-Ryan Gauld
Subs not used: #32-Issac Boehmer, #31-Russell Teibert, #29-Simon Becher, #28-Levonte Johnson, #2-Mathias Laborda
EXPECTED GOALS: CHI 1.27-2.14 CAN
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 14-10 VAN
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 3-4 VAN
FOULS: CHI 13-14 VAN
OFFSIDES: CHI 0-1 VAN
CORNER KICKS: CHI 4-5 VAN
SAVES: CHI 3-3 VAN
Referee: Ricardo Fierro
Referee’s Assistants: Logan Brown, Cameron Blanchard
4th Official: Jon Freemon
VAR: Geoff Gamble
AVAR: Robert Schaap
Weather: Sunny and 66º
Attendance: 9,187
Man of the Match: Brian White (VAN)
